After seeing his side dismantle Aston Villa by a 4-1 scoreline to remain top of the Premier League table going into the new year, Mikel Arteta was delighted with the quality on show from those in red and white.
Second-half goals from Gabriel, Martin Zubimendi, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus saw us stun a side on an 11-game winning run and third in the league, and hand us a huge win in a big game to end 2025 on a real high.
And Mikel was thrilled with the performance and result, especially our willingness to keep pushing forward to get more goals to produce a statement victory.
“I’m very, very happy,” he said after the game. “I think it’s one of those wins that you feel satisfied with because you know the difficulty of it, with all the preparation, all the issues that we had, the little time that you have from game to game and to play against a team that has 11 wins in a row.
“To be able to beat them in the manner that we did is not easy and the players deserve a lot of credit for that. The determination, the dominance and that willingness to go for more, the spirit of the team is incredible. When we had to navigate through difficult periods, and we did it really well, and then we took our opportunities today.
“I think we stepped up in the second half in terms of what we had to do, the quality that we delivered. There are some great moments that we have done there, so a big well done to the team.”
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The win was bookended by goals for a pair of returning Brazilians. Gabriel marked his first start back in our line-up by nodding home the opener from a corner, and Gabriel Jesus put the icing on the cake with a superb curling goal to net his first since his 11-month injury lay-off.
Mikel was thrilled for both of them for making an impact so early on in their respective returns, and praised their professionalism and drive to hit the ground running, especially given the calibre of the opposition we were up against.
On Gabriel’s man of the match display, Mikel said: “That’s again down to preparation and mentality. He’s been out for six weeks, that’s a lot at this level. Then to play against a team like this, with open spaces, with one of the best strikers in the league, constantly pinning you and dragging you into the wrong areas is very difficult to do, and on top of that, he scored the goal.
“I’m very happy for [Jesus]. He’s put in an incredible effort and he’s relentless. He wants more, he looks really, really, really happy. His emotional state is really high at the moment and he needed that goal. I’m very happy for him.”
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All Gooners will be toasting this victory on New Year’s Eve as they can start their celebrations knowing we’ll be top of the pile when Big Ben chimes in 2026, and Mikel thanked them for pushing us to victory, and hopes fto give them many more happy moments over the course of another big 12 months.
“I think we generated an incredible atmosphere again,” he added. “We went through patches that were tough, but we have to go through that together. I think they enjoyed the performance, they enjoyed the victory.
“Thank you so much for the support in 2025, and let’s go for the next part of the season which is going to be a big one.”
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